We made a short visit to the Castlemartin peninsula (Elegug Stacks- Bullslaughter Bay) this afternoon to check out how the choughs were settling in. We hadn't seen many summer migrants, a few Swallows and a couple of Wheatears on territory. Then, as we were heading around Flimston Bay, we were amazed to see an Alpine Swift circling around about 50 metres above the cliffs. It flew into bright sunlight just as we were struggling to remove cameras from their bags and no sooner had it appeared, it was gone. Although the view was brief (sadly no photos were possible) there was no doubt about the species. For one moment we might have been at Cape St Vincent in Portugal where we are more used to seeing them at this time of year.
Choughs were busy nest-building in a couple of places, and we noted a fairly mobile flock of 8 feeding in the area. A couple of Red Kites were making good use of the thermals just in land and c.2-300 Golden Plovers were resting in a field near Flimston Chapel. Try as we might though, we could not relocate the swift. Perhaps there is a reasonable chance of it sticking around for a day or two along this c.20km of Limestone coast?
Back at Martletwy/Landshipping, Blackcaps have returned - a few singing now since late March.